Republic of South Africa should #RespectOurKing #RespectBasotho

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Clifford Lesego started this petition to President Cyril Ramaphosa (RSA President) and

#Respect Basotho

#RespectOurKing

PREAMBLE

While we appreciate that Lesotho is completely surrounded by the mighty Republic of South Africa (RSA), RSA must know that Lesotho is a sovereign state and a democratic monarchy for that matter. Our King is a symbol of unity and peace. RSA should know that they can mess up with us as much as they want but NOT with our King.

Furthermore, it is our hope that RSA shall not forget that Lesotho helped RSA to fight oppression. In fact a lot of innocent Basotho's blood was shed. They were killed by the boers as they were chasing the ANC members who had sought asylum in Lesotho. We hope you shall recall the Maseru Massacre where dozens of Basotho were killed along with the ANC members.

Concerns

We note with deepest concern the treatment that Basotho nationals are exposed to in RSA. The very same ANC government is treating Basotho nationals like trash in RSA. You quickly forget.

We must be very unfortunate that we are completely surrounded by RSA as a country. We cannot cross to any country without landing on the South African soil. We are indeed landlocked.

Crossing into RSA used to be very smooth and quick process until recently when things changes drastically for reasons only known to South Africa.

The ANC government has introduced some very strict rules on its borders which are aimed at making it hard and unbearable for Basotho to cross into RSA.

Currently the minimum queuing time at RSA borders ranges between 4 to 6 hours. This is on normal days not peak periods. It becomes worse during peak hours where people would spend even more than 24 hours at the bordergates. Some have already died while queuing for services.

For the fact that this was not the case before, we can safely conclude that this is intentional. The immigration officers at the bordergates are so rude and treat Basotho as dogs.

We call upon the government of the ANC to please address this issue forthwith and imacably. We have endured this for the longest time possible. We are spending our own money to do business with RSA but the treatment at the bordergates says you are not interested in doing business with us.

We bring to your attention that our silence does not mean that we do not know what we can do to be heard. In fact as the youth of this country we will stand up and force you to respect this nation.

Finally, our King, His Majesty King Letsie the Third has been disrespected and mistreated by your own half-baked immigration officers. Their disrespect for this nation has gone beyond boundaries to the extent that they now think they can pull off our diplomats out of the official vehicles and search them.

Our King was subjected to the worst treatment ever. Head of state being taken out of his official car and searched.

Minister Lindiwe Sizulu, I hope that it shall dawn upon yourself that we are talking about the Head of State here. Not your colleagues ( Ministers). It is therefore given that RSA apology should be made by your Head of State. Not you as a Minister.

In fact, your apology is not very important. What is important is for you to address the situation in your country. Your people and government should respect Lesotho and Basotho.

African Union is talking of free movement. I don't see that happening between your country and Lesotho due to the way you disrespect us.

Your good selves shall recall that the SADC region has agreed on a cross border transportation of passengers using public transport. It was also agreed that a taxi/bus stop will be more than 10km away from the border post.

You shall agree with me that this has been implemented with all other countries except Lesotho where the ANC government in Free State is blundently refusing to honour this agreement. Basotho taxis are destroyed once they try to cross-transport our people.

Instead of honouring this agreement, your government is improving the bus stops near the borders. The same bus stops which are illegally situated as per this agreement.

Please respect our people.

Please respect our country.

Please respect our government.

Please respect our King.

Reminder to your government :

As the youth we shall do everything in our power to remind you that Basotho are human beings and their human rights need to be respected.

REMEMBER WATER IS OUR BARGAINING POWER AND WE CAN ACTUALLY USE IT TO ENSURE THAT WE ARE HEARD.

THIS IS OUR WATER AND WE ARE NOT BOUND BY ANYTHING TO GIVE IT TO Anybody.